Wednesday, July 4, 2012

About Google Glass

I'm starting to think about research again. Not intensely (still traveling!) but that doesn't stop me from collecting articles.

Doubters raise familiar arguments: "It'll be alienating!" "You'll look goofy!" etc. To this I agree with this post, which argues that alienation from technology has already happened, Glass will be less alienating, and looking goofy hasn't stopped technology before. (or rather, looking goofy has, but unconventional and new doesn't necessarily imply goofy.)

Another more interesting argument is: "There aren't any useful applications." Like Microsoft Surface. I guess that remains to be seen, but I for one would be interesting in exploring the application space. Here are a few directions off the top of my head:
- add in face recognition and tell you who you see and when. (tell you, not google! yes, privacy is important.)
- is there a microphone? tell you something about what you say.
- peripheral displays for things you care about peripherally. The time, if you're into that. Progressive levels of alerts; stop you from pulling out your cell phone for each call.
- stuff for improving social interactions! how long you've been making eye contact! hell, an eye contact coach!
- help you take breaks from work.
- tell you about how much your gaze wavers as some kind of proxy for focus.
- let you review a video of your day so you know how long stuff actually takes.

2 comments:

  1. I completely disagree with the look goofy post. The new rage is to wear those giant big bulky black glasses. Athletes are wearing them a ton during news conferences, even when they don't have a prescription/don't have lenses in them!

    I have yet to hear anyone compare google glass to a video game. Take a popular video game, Modern Warfare for example. On the screen is what your character sees. But then in the corner is a map. In the other corner is your ammo. You constantly bring up the score. Now take other video games that add health, power ups, money, words from other players, etc. Video games easily have a ton of icons on the screen and people get along fantastically with them.

    It will take time, but I think this will be great. The social interactions and work implications are enormous. Productivity could increase 10 fold with this.

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  2. I'm interested to see what people's response is when you're wearing these. The thing is, you can clearly tell it's a computer, so everyone is going to at least comment on it, as opposed to big glasses. But yeah, what if instead of looking goofy, they become a new fashiony thing? Like white ipod headphones?

    That's a good point about games. I'm not sure what in real life is as important as health/ammo in games, or if people could use peripheral displays in the real life world like they could in games, but it's certainly possible.

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